Govt may make mandatory hallmarking of silver jewellery after six months: BIS DG

New Delhi, Sep 12 (PTI) The government will consider making hallmarking of silver jewellery and articles mandatory after evaluating the effectiveness of the process, which has been introduced on a voluntary basis.

On September 4, the government announced introducing voluntary hallmarking for silver jewellery and articles, effective September 1, implementing a digital identification system to ensure metal purity for consumers.

"We need some time to evaluate it. Six months should be enough. We will look at this for six months, and after that, we will consider whether to make it mandatory or not," Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), told PTI on Friday.

The official made the remarks in reply to a question about whether the government may consider making hallmarking of silver jewellery mandatory.

BIS is the National Standard Body of India established under the BIS Act 2016 for the harmonious development of the activities of standardisation, marking and quality certification of goods and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Tiwari said it is being considered to make them mandatory like gold jewellery because, at small levels, people make jewellery by melting silver and bringing them in the ambit of mandatory certification is a big challenge.

Replying to a question related to sustainability, Tiwari said that in e-mobility, BIS has published numerous standards.

"We have developed standards for EV charging stations...for battery charging. We are also making standards for battery swapping. It is at the draft stage. If we have to make EVs popular, then we must have petrol pump-like infrastructure for EVs," he noted.

In its last week's announcement, the BIS revised its hallmarking standard with the publication of IS 2112:2025, replacing the earlier IS 2112:2014 version.

The revision introduces Hallmarking Unique Identification (HUID)-based on silver jewellery and articles, enhancing traceability and aligning with the existing gold hallmarking system.

Under the new system, consumers can identify article type, purity grade, hallmarking date, testing centre details and jeweller registration number of silver jewellery hallmarked after September 1, 2025, using the BIS Care mobile application, according to an official statement.

The revised standard introduces seven purity grades - 800, 835, 925, 958, 970, 990, and 999, with grades 958 and 999 newly added. The hallmark consists of three components -- BIS Standard Mark with the word 'SILVER', purity grade, and HUID code.

The country, currently, has around 230 Assaying and Hallmarking Centres recognised by BIS for testing silver jewellery, spread across 87 districts.

In financial year 2024-25, over 3.2 million silver jewellery articles were hallmarked.

The previous IS 2112:2014 standard permitted hallmarking in six purity grades - 800, 835, 900, 925, 970, and 990 - with a four-component hallmark system, including BIS mark, purity grade, testing centre identification and jeweller identification marks. PTI ABI ABI BAL BAL